This relates generally to electronic devices with displays, and, more particularly, to displays with backlights.
Electronic devices such as computers and cellular telephones have displays. Some displays such organic light-emitting diode displays have arrays of pixels that generate light. In displays of this type, backlighting is not necessary because the pixels themselves produce light. Other displays contain passive pixels that can alter the amount of light that is transmitted through the display to display information for a user. Passive pixels do not produce light themselves, so it is often desirable to provide backlight for a display with passive pixels. Passive pixels may be formed from a layer of liquid crystal material formed between two electrode layers and two polarizer layers.
In a typical backlight assembly for a display, a light guide plate is used to distribute backlight generated by a light source such as a light-emitting diode light source. A reflector may be formed under the light guide plate to improve backlight efficiency.
Conventional backlight assemblies may cause visible artifacts, may not be robust, and may occupy an undesirably large amount of space within an electronic device.
It would therefore be desirable to be able to provide displays with improved backlights.